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IMPROVED 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE: 



.SHOWING 






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WITH 



WINDOWS ON THREE SIDES, 



AND WITHOUT LOSING ECONOMY OF SPACE IN THE 

BUILDING. - ^v^^ 

BY y .^^O: 

ADOLPHUS FREDERIC MARTHENS 



PITTSBURGH: ^ 
1873. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, Dy 

Adolphus Frederic Marthens, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 








[CHOOL AKCrilTECTURE has fully kept pace, 
in grandeur of style and extravagance of outlay, 
with the rapidly increasing wealth of the people 
of our country; but in some of the essentials of 
comfort and health it is yet greatly deficient. Perhaps 
a reason for this may be, that architects are never teach- 
ers, and are seldom if ever identified with educational 
interests to such a degree as to become imbued with a feel 
ing of the real needs of great school buildings. Their 
delight is in massive piles, and they revel among eleva- 
tions where hundreds of feet on each front give scope 
to their genius. Thus they frequently rear structures of 
such magnificent proportions as to necessitate imperfectly 
lighted interiors; forgetting that the "dim, religious light" 
of the poet, is unfitted for the active employments of life, 
and hardly even suited for the church, of which he sung. 

The author and designer of the following pages has had 
his attention drawn towards schools and school accommo- 
dations, for several years past; and all of his examina- 
tions, whether of the houses themselves, or the plans on 
paper, where the former were inaccessible, have only the 
more fully convinced him that the best exterior form has 
never yet been attained, and consequently that the interior 



4 Improved School Architecture. 

is necessarily defective in some essential particulars, the 
chief ol which is undoubteily that of an abundant and 
evenly distributed light; a quality which ought to obtain 
in all school houses. Out of a great number of plans, 
from the least pretentious up to those of the largest and 
costliest structures, in only rare instances have I found 
rooms with windows on two opposite sides, in any but the 
smallest houses. The finest of them may be said indeed 
to be invariably made up of rooms either lighted only from 
one side, or else from two adjoining sides, in the propor- 
tion of two of the latter to one of the former. 

Some of the most popular educational institutions of 
EngltMid, such as Eton and Winchester colleges, and the 
schools of Rugby, Christ Church, Merchant Taylors, Har- 
row, &c., have their windows placed on two opposite sides; 
which is certainly better for diffusion of light than our 
method; yet those school rooms, excellent as they are, 
cannot be ranked as perfect when compared with a house 
the rooms of which are lighted by windows on three sides, 
through which the direct rays of light stream in. 

The object of this publication is to call attention to a 
New Plan for^chool Houses, which accomplishes this 
great result. \That this is a new plan, no one may doubt, 
for, although in exceptional cases, and as it were, by chance, 
rooms lighted from three sides may be found in school hou- 
ses, yet, on putting the question recently to an enthusiastic 
educator, a gentleman of high intelligence, who has visited 
more^than three hundred schools, including all of the best 
in the country, he assured me that none of them were 
lighted from three sides of a square. \ 




Improved School Architecture. 5 

The elaborate and expensive but usually inefficient ar- 
rangements for ventilation, which are now so lavishly 
provided, may be entirely dispensed with, in houses built 
on this plan, as a movement of the windows on opposite 
sides of the rooms can always more certainly and promptly 
effect the object; and even the whole house, right through, 
can be thus aired. 

Another advantage is, that the direct light of the sun 
cannot be hindered from peeping into these rooms during 
some part of the day, giving life and health to the little 
learners, and invigorating the teacher as well. 

]¥lie Plan, as will be seen, is drawn for a three-storied 
house, cabbie of accommodating eight hundred to a thou- 
sand pupill, (and more than this ought not to be under 
one roolij and with an Exliibition Hall of proportions am- 
ple for all school uses. [But one of the excellent points in 
it is its adaptability to smaller numbers of scholars. The 
general plan remains all the same, whether the school be 
large or small to begin with, and shows no lopsidedness in 
front, when only partially built. For example: the first 
story, with its large school rooms, besides directors' room, 
with vault for records, and other apartments, and on the 
second floor the three front rooms, with the centre part of 
the house built up to its full height, for the Hall, would 
give eight school rooms, leaving yet seven out of the plan, 
while the front appearance would not be at all unsightly. 
When the demand for more room would arise, it could be 
met by adding the two back rooms of the second story, or 
those two and the two front rooms of the third; and, 
finally, as population increased, the plan in its full propor- 



6 Improved School Architecture. 

tions could be erected — but all the while, whether in its 
partial or its complete state, light, sunshine, and ventila- 
tion, would always be available. 

In publishing this New Plan for school buildings, I do 
not intend to interfere with the occupation of architects, 
(a highly meritorious class of artists,) any further than to 
exhibit to the public and to School Boards such a valuable 
improvement as shall demand acceptance. It might be 
supposed that this plan would require a much larger sur- 
face of ground than the present style of school buildings; 
but so far is this from being the case, that it actually takes 
less ground for a specific amount of seating room than that 
of any other with which I have compared it. As I said 
before, no other interference with architects is designed; 
and elevations, cellar plans, roofs, arrangements for heat- 
ing, including necessary smoke and hot air flues, &c., and 
the specifications necessary for the proper erection of the 
house, I willingly leave to them. 

A few observations in regard to interior arrangements: 
Each of the three stories ought to be about fourteen feet 
to the ceiling, and if the hall were elevated to eighteen or 
twenty feet, it would be all the better. The walls of the 
rooms ought to be as free from angles as possible, for the 
convenience of blackboard surface. The blackboard itself 
ought to occupy a space of three feet nine inches around the 
walls, beginning at a distance of fifteen inches from the 
floor, and ascending to a height of five feet. The teacher's 
desk ought to be invariably situated as indicated in the 
plans, so as to have the scholars' faces turned towards the 
only wall which is unpierced by windows. The windows 



Improved School Architecture. 7 

ought to be placed h igh enough to be clear of the bl ack- 
board, (five feet from the floor, as above stated ;y and they 
ought to be provided with inside shutters, but not of the 
Venetian sort. Let them be simply panelled, and in four 
parts, each part running in one piece from bottom to top, 
for convenience of handling. When made in this way 
they will be much cheaper; much more convenient; much 
easier kept clean and in repair ; and, by the exercise of a 
little judgment, quite as effective in shading the room. 

There ought to be a comfortable room in the basement, 
for the janitor, where he should always be found during 
school hours, except when necessarily engaged in some 
other part of the house. A dwelling for a janitor's family 
in the basement, is a nuisance. The cooking of coarse and 
unsavory food, during school hours, often sends up offen- 
sive odors, and unfits the scholar for proper attention to 
his studies. Other reasons also might be given why it 
is very undesirable to have a family quartered on the 
premises. 



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First Floor. — Size of building, 84 by 111 feet. Principal 
front, two school rooms, each 26 by 35 feet, with three 
windows in front, two at the side, and two in the rear, 
where they open out upon an area twenty-two feet wide ; 
affording abundant space for the ingress of light and air. 
The rooms have wardrobes attached, 5i by 6 ft. Between 
these two rooms is a vestibule, 5^ by 35 ft., open in front, 
and spanned with three arches, communicating directly 



8 Improved School Architecture. 

with both of the rooms. On passing through the centre 
of the vestibule you enter the passage-way, 9 feet wide, 
near the front of which, on the left hand, is the direc- 
tors' room, 12 by 12 ft., with two windows in front, 
and a fire- proof vault in the rear, 4j by 6 ft. This is a 
most important adjunct, and ought to be introduced into 
every public-school house. As it is not to be supposed 
that the people will ever willingly fall back again into ig- 
norance, after having once tasted the joys of education, 
our school systems must necessarily continue through all 
time ; the preservation of the records, therefore, becomes a 
matter of great interest, destined to increase with the lapse 
of years and centuries. 

Immediately opposite to the door of the directors' room 
is a room 12 by 15 ft., which may be used as a principal's 
and writing teacher's room. Back of this, and fronting 
on the transverse passage, are two closets for the use of 
the teachers. In the rear of the directors' room there is 
a small room, convenient for keeping towels, soap, hose, 
brushes, &c., in charge of the janitor; and adjoining to it, 
but facing on the other passage,- are stationary wash 
basins. 

This brings us into the transverse passage, which is 22* 
feet wide, and contains the two stairways and the ward- 
robes ; the stairs occupying 10 feet of the width. This 
passage may be ranked as a secondary entrance way, 
jilthough the doors are equally wide with those of the 
principal front. To the rear of this wide passage are two 
more rooms of the same size as those in the front, and one 
between them, of 30 by 35 feet, which, although lighted 



Improved School Architecture. & 

from three sides, is not lighted from three quarters of the 
compass. 

Second Floor. — Five rooms, each 26 by 35 feet, four of 
which have the admirable arrangement for light, while a 
hfth one, occupying the front centre, has light only from 
one side, and the centre one in the rear, (being in shape 
like the corresponding one on the first floor,) has the same 
degree of light. Four of these rooms might have had 
wardrobes just like those of the first floor, but as it would 
have been impossible to provide in the same way for the 
other two, it was deemed best, for the sake of symmetry, 
to erect wardrobes in two corresponding angles of each 
centre room. 

Third Floor. — Four more rooms, same size as those be- 
low, and like them in every respect. Wardrobes for all. 
Passage ways five feet wide, running parallel with the ex- 
hibition hall, lead to these school rooms. They are the 
only rooms in the house the doors of which are not reached 
by the direct rays of light through the windows, but a sky- 
light over the passage corrects the deficiency. 

The exhibition hall, 35 by 81 feet, is entered from both 
stairways, through double doors. There are also two sec- 
ondary entrances to it, through the back school rooms; 
in addition to which there are still two others through 
the front rooms, leading to the stage. 

The sizes of ihe rooms, &c., although exactly given on 
the plans, can of course be varied, but the general propor- 
tions ought to be preserved. 

The plans of these three floors are believed to combine 
more valuable points for convenient and healthful common 



10 Improved School Architecture. 

school instruction, than have ever yet been embraced un- 
der one roof; and the designer feels free to make this 
broad assertion because he has studied the subject pretty 
thoroughly, and has obtained to every thing here suggested 
the assent of his judgment. Yet, though he has specified 
a variety of matters in the way of detail, the chief thing, 
in his opinion, is the arrangement of the ground plan to 
such a shape as to afford light to nearly all the rooms from 
three sides of a square, coupled with the means of ready 
and thorough ventilation. 

Note. — Although the principal walls on the Plans are represented as of the 
uniform thickness of eighteen inches, yet practically it is unnecessary to make 
them more than thirteen inches thick, fiom the floor of the third story. 



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